Phone texting course sends wrong message

A publicly funded course is teaching adults how to text-message on their mobile phones as part of a government learning drive.

Ten people attended the first session of the free two-hour course, How to Use Your Mobile Phone, at Collingwood community centre in Walsall yesterday.

Other areas covered by the curriculum include downloading ringtones, storing and retrieving numbers, phone tariffs, safety, and the future of mobile technology.

The course is targeted at 40-to 50-year-olds who are anxious about using their mobile phones. It is part of the "Bite Size" initiative to encourage adults back into learning, organised by the learning and skills council, a government quango.

Damian Green, shadow education secretary, said: "At a time when teachers are facing redundancy, this is an absurd use of the education budget."

But Giles Hanson, a spokesman for the LSC, said: "Ultimately, this course only costs around £100 to run and can benefit a lot of people in mobile phone use. We believe it is an extremely worthwhile course.

"People may like to think the LSC is spending a lot of money on 'Mickey Mouse' courses teaching people how to draw smiley faces on their phones, but there is more to it than that.

"There wouldn't be any of this fuss had it been a course in using emails or how to use a conventional computer."

Course organiser Mark Conway said: "What the critics don't understand is that we are trying to encourage people back into a learning environment.

"The courses are aimed at people who may have left school at an early age with no qualifications, or an adult with very few skills. If these people are attracted to the text-messaging course, they may decide to embark on a more serious subject."